A True Gryffindor
by script.errol
Summary: The story of the Golden trio with a few twists and turns. plus some explanations as to how Harry survived the Dursleys, how Hermione's summers are, and a a bit about Ron's ansestory. Deff. a cannon story but I've woven in a bit of AU plot. ENJOY
1. prologue his letter

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Any Of The Harry Potter Stories, All Rights To Whom They Belong. (eh, sad but true)

**Finally.**

Finally Ron was going to attend Hogwarts.  
>He remembered Bill coming back from his second year and talking about Dumbledore and all of the different spells he could do. He remembered Charlie returning after his third year and going on and on about Dragons, of all things. And Percy came back after his first year and told everyone (who'd listen) that Hogwarts was going to make him Minister of Magic. He remembered Fred and George coming back after their second year with crazy stories about all the pranks they'd pulled (while praising "marauders" – whatever that was).<br>And during all that time Ron just listened in awe, waiting for his time.  
>And FINALLY.<br>Finally Ron was going to attend Hogwarts.  
>The letter in his hand told him so.<p>HOGWARTS SCHOOL<p>

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore  
>(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,<br>Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Weasly,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,  
>Minerva McGonagall<br>Deputy Headmistress

* * *

>Ron didn't need to read it. All of his brothers had the exact same letter. He had it memorized when he was seven.<p><p> 


	2. Glasses and an Odd Occurrence

Chapter One: Glasses and an Odd Occurrence

Harry Potter was seven the first time he'd been told he needed glasses. He had been very upset about this because he already had to wear his older cousin's rather large cloths, and his black hair never stayed in place, and some of the kids in his second grade class teased him about it all the time. And Harry did not want to give those kids another reason to pick on him.  
>Harry's aunt and uncle were very upset because they had to spend their hard earned money on something as worthless as glasses for a boy, who, in their opinion, would amount to nothing. Harry had lived with his aunt and uncle for as long as he could remember; he was only one when his parents died in a car crash, a crash that Harry survived with nothing but scar on his forehead, in the shape of a lightning bolt. Harry's aunt and uncle constantly reminded Harry how thankful he should be that they allowed Harry to live in their house.<br>Harry's school's nurse had sent home a letter with Harry on Thursday that said Harry needed to have his eyesight checked. So aunt Petunia had no choice but to take Harry to get glasses. They drove to a very respectable eye doctor and Aunt Petunia was nearly ready to purchase Harry's glasses when she spotted Mrs. Next Door enter the shop. Aunt Petunia left the shop immediately; she simply couldn't be seen near the woman, besides the glasses had been far too expensive anyway.  
>The following weekend Aunt Petunia drove all the way to a different optometrist's office to buy a more "acceptable" pair of glasses for the boy. Aunt Petunia parked the car and hurried into the office. Harry followed, quickly, and heard the door jingle shut behind him.<br>"Come on Perce, I reckon glasses will help you look like proper minister."  
>Harry saw a boy with bright red hair and freckles smile down at a younger boy, who looked Harry's age, with hair and freckles that clearly made out the two boys to be brothers, before putting on a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and puffing out his chest, in a way which Harry believed was supposed to look important.<br>"Oh thanks Ronnie dear" the kind looking woman whispered to the younger boy, before paying for the glasses and leaving. Ron started to follow his mother when he saw Harry standing by the door. The boy stared at Harry for a moment, and to Harry it looked like the boy recognized him, which was quite absurd since Harry knew the only red-haired boy at his school was Thomas Jeffery who was a grade behind him, and picked his nose.  
>"Come on Ron, we've got to pick your sister up on our way home!" The nice lady said from outside. The young boy quickly hopped-to and Harry walked over to his Aunt, who was talking with the woman behind the counter.<p>

Three quarters of an hour later Harry was back at his house, in the bathroom wearing his round wire-rimmed glasses and knowing they would in no way help Harry avoid the already immense teasing he got from his classmates. Harry sighed and went back to his cupboard under the stairs where he was planning on hiding until Monday.  
>Harry's plan worked for about fifteen minutes, until Aunt Petunia told Harry to go out back and weed her flower bed. Then something very odd happened. Of course Harry didn't know it was odd when it happened, after all he was only seven, and to a seven year old boy with hardly any friends talking to animals seems perfectly normal.<br>"Hello there Mr. Snake, nice day?"  
>"Yesss, and you?" The snake replied quite kindly<br>"Not so much, it's far too hot out and my aunt is making me weed!" Harry said to the little garden snake. Harry talked to snakes quite often, they were always polite to him, and didn't care that Harry was a freak. Harry had tried to talk to other animals, but he could only ever understand snakes.  
>"My condolencessss." Said the snake. Harry didn't know what that word meant, but he figured it sounded like the snake was sorry.<br>"Thanks mate-" It was at this moment Mr. Dursly got home.  
>"Oi! Boy, what are you doing?" he nearly shouted<br>"Talking to the gardener snake." Harry immediately realized this was exactly the wrong thing to say as his uncle's face slowly turned purple.  
>"SNAKES DO NOT TALK! Inside. Cupboard. Now. No dinner." Harry followed his uncle into the kitchen, and straight to his cupboard. Where, once Harry thought about it, was where he wanted to be all along anyways.<br>Harry sat in his cupboard and played with some toy soldiers he stole out of the trash after Dudley, Harry's cousin, threw them all out because one of them broke. Eventually Harry fell asleep to the sound of his uncle listening to the telly.

That night Harry dreamt about a flying motorcycle, and a giant man, taking him to live with a family that truly cared for him. One like the red-haired family he saw in the store.

Monday morning came too soon for Harry's liking. And before he had finished his piece of dry toast he was being shoved out of the car and into the playground at his school. Harry was defiantly not looking forward to the day.  
>Harry slowly walked across the park trying to stay as invisible as possible. Knowing that it probably wouldn't last he took a large breath and quickly headed toward the door. Harry's fellow school mates were laughing at Harry, but not too much more than normal, and Harry figured that they would be back to ignoring him before the weeks' end, which was how Harry liked it.<br>Harry saw Dudley and some of his friends walking toward him, so Harry quickly walked toward the doors of the school and rushed inside to get to his class. Harry put his backpack on the hook outside the classroom and went toward his assigned seat to wait for the bell to ring. Today Harry noticed that he had a substitute teacher in his class, Mr. Pin. Mr. Pin had a funny scar on his face, Harry wondered how he got it. Once class had started Harry tried his best to understand what the teacher was talking about, but science was always his worst subject, and it seemed to Harry that the substitute made less sense of it than he did. Eventually he gave it up for a bad job and busied himself with looking out the window. Harry knew that he would get into trouble for this, but he also knew that the Dursley's wouldn't care, in fact, Harry thought that this might be a good thing, because he wouldn't get into trouble for being smarter than Dudley.  
>"Mr. Potter, MR. POTTER!" Harry was startled out of his thoughts by his teacher, who had been calling on Harry for nearly a minute. Harry finally looked up toward him.<br>"Perhaps Mr. Potter, you would like to stay after class, since, it would appear that you have plenty of time to waste, staring out that window." Harry's teacher said.  
>"Yes sir." Harry answered, while blushing. Harry hated to be told off, but it seemed to happen quite often and usually for things Harry couldn't explain.<br>Class ended sooner than Harry had hoped, and far too early for Harry's taste he was walking up toward his teacher's desk.  
>"Sir?" Harry asked slowly.<br>"Mr. Potter, have a seat". Harry sat quickly, hoping that by behaving himself, he'd be let off with a simple warning. Mr. Pin clasped his hands in front of his mouth and looked down at Harry for a long moment. The longer the teacher looked at Harry the more nervous Harry got.  
>"Sir are you alright?" Harry asked. Mr. Pin seemed to shake himself out of his thought<br>"Do you try to limit yourself?"  
>"I'm sorry, what do you mean?" Harry said, completely thrown off by the question.<br>"I' noticed that you are inclined to slide by in classes, I know that you could be capable of more Mr. Potter. And you are not doing anyone any favors by holding yourself back." Harry's substitute said.  
>"I'm sorry sir. It's just my cousin-" Harry began, before his teacher cut him off.<br>"I don't care about your cousin Mr. Potter. He is not you, nor should he dictate what you can do. Allowing another power over you, your choices and your abilities, is never going to lead to a positive end." Mr. Pin said.  
>"yes sir." Harry said. for some reason Harry thought that he owed it to Mr. Pin to try and explain why it was best to just avoid his cousin all together. "it just seemed smarter to try and avoid him"<br>"Cunning can get you places Mr. Potter. Just be wary that your cunning doesn't turn into cowardliness, Bravery and action will always get more accomplished than evading a problem. Keep that in mind, now, off you trot" And Harry's teacher dismissed him rather quickly.  
>Harry didn't quite know what his teacher meant as he set off toward the playground for his noon break, the small sack lunch aunt Petunia made for him grasped in his hand. Harry usually spent lunch sitting on the far side of the playground, behind a tree that served as both a hiding spot from Dudley and a cool shady area to eat under. As Harry sat he pondered the advice his professor had given him. Action, Harry realized, he needed to take action. So Harry took a deep breath, hid his lunch, and took a peak around the tree trunk. Harry quickly stopped peaking after he saw his cousin standing with his friends, there was no way he'd walk out of his hiding spot right in front of Dudley. Harry decided he'd have to work up to being brave, after all, this was his first time 'taking action' maybe tomorrow, Harry reasoned, he'd be a bit braver.<p>

Harry was in fourth grade the next time he had Mr. Pin as a substitute. Harry knew that although he was a little taller, he'd still look the same, his glasses, hair, and to big clothes hadn't changed at all. Never the less Harry was still excited to talk to Mr. Pin, and he hoped Mr. Pin would remember him. The lunch bell had just dinged and Harry's class had hurried out the door. Mr. Pin looked up from the desk surprised to see a student still in the classroom.  
>"Don't you wish to go out and play Mr. Potter?" Mr. Pin asked<br>"Actually sir, not really." Harry said

"oh?" Mr. Pin actually looked upset at this Harry thought.  
>"i wanted to thank you, sir, for helping me. Dudley, that's my cousin, rarely bothers me anymore!" Harry said.<br>"That's brilliant, Mr. Potter, i see you've grown." Mr. Pin said  
>"a whole 15 centimeters." Harry said, puffing out his chest. Mr. Pin chuckled "that's not quite what i meant Mr. Potter, however I'm glad to see it nonetheless. why don't you head out for noon break?"<br>Harry smiled and left. his life really had improved since he'd begun to stand up to Dudley. the kids at school rarely laughed anymore, and he was much to fast for Dudley to catch when Harry stood up to him. it was with this attitude that Harry steeped outside. And ran straight into Dudley.  
>"See what we've got here? a little baby without any friends." Harry's cousin said<br>"you've not got any friends either Dudley. just henchmen" Harry said back, he'd learned about henchmen only two nights ago, when uncle Vernon had been watching a tv-movie late. Harry thought 'henchmen' was the perfect way to describe the boys that followed Dudley around, they were stupid and only managed to get in the way.  
>Some of Dudley's smarter friends looked angry at being called henchmen, but Dudley, who probably didn't know what Harry just said, just smirked and said "i didn't know you are that blind, need you glasses fixed i think, my friends are standing right beside me."<br>"Look to be standing behind you to me. though I'm surprised they're so very brave. i'I'dever stand behind you for fear of getting mashed when you turn around." Harry said. Dudley's eyes bulged and before Harry quite knew what was happening he was running from Dudley and his gang. Harry was trying to figure out how he was going to get away and saw some trashcans a little ways away. Harry jumped as hard as he could and hopped he would make it. suddenly Harry felt like he was being pulled toward the roof of the school. Harry rose higher and higher, he passed up by a teachers window and was reaching the height of the roof. Harry saw a little silver bar sticking up off the top of the roof and grabbed it. and the sort of pulling feeling was gone, but he was on the roof! he looked over the edge and gasped, the ground below was quite a ways down. he hopped that Dudley would tell a teacher he was stuck and get him down. His hopes fell when he saw Dudley waking away from the school building and toward the younger children's play park. Harry thought he was going to have to live on the roof, no one would bother to look for him up there, once they noticed he was gone anyway, which could take ages. suddely Harry heard his name being called  
>"Harry! How on earth did you manage to get up onto the roof?" It was Mr. Pin! "hold on, i'll go get someone to help me get you down. just sit tight!"<br>Harry nodded down at Mr. Pin. so pleased he wouldn't have to be a roof-man forever. Several minuets later Harry saw a firetruck drive up to the school, and a big fireman carried Harry off the roof of the school, and right in to waiting glare of the Head. Harry had been under the same glare several times before after many strange incidents had happened all around Harry. The Head of the school turned to walk back toward her office, and Harry knew he was meant to follow. the rest of Harry's lunch period consisted of Harry trying to explain how he didn't climb onto the roof, he was jumping and the wind must have carried him, that was all he could figure. and the head writing a referral letter for Harry to deliver to his relatives.

********************  
>Mr. Pin never substituted again, in fact he had never substituted before either. But Dumbledore had asked him to, and of course he had been more than happy to agree. He knew the circumstance, and hated that he could not be of more aid, but was happy to have at least made Harry's life a little easier. Though science he thought, he could do without.<p> 


End file.
